Expert alert to airport security

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In his review of
airport security
in Australia Sir
John Wheeler
wants to ensure
that if an
atrocity occurs,
a proper security
plan is in place.Photo: Nick Lockett

If you work at Melbourne Airport and find a
distinguished-looking Englishman sitting beside you some time in
the next month, don't be alarmed, though it would do well to be
alert. It means Sir John Wheeler is on the job, and wants to know
how you do yours.

Sir John notes that it was precisely June 5 when Australia's
then deputy prime minister, John Anderson, rang to ask him to
conduct a sweeping review of airport security in Australia. The
senior British public servant and former minister in the
Conservative government of John Major said yes on the spot.
Why?

"If I am asked to do something for the good of mankind, it is in
my nature - since my whole life has been devoted to public service
- to accept that obligation," he said.

Sir John, who flew into Australia on Friday, will visit many of
the country's 38 principal airports, talk to everyone from bosses
to baggage handlers, and write a strategy to try to ensure the
safety of the country's airports in the age of terrorism and
borderless, organised crime.

He is guarded about what his proposals to the Australian
Government might be - his report will be divided into secret,
restricted and unrestricted sections. "I don't intend to put into
the public domain anything that would aid the bad guys - criminals
or terrorists, wherever they are - to exploit any weaknesses in the
system," he said.

However, a similar inquiry Sir John conducted for the British
Government in 2002 led, among other reforms, to the introduction of
security checks for airport staff as well as passengers. He will
look at that for Australia, too.

London's Heathrow Airport spent a lot more money on security
after his review. Mr Anderson warned last month that air fares were
likely to rise as a result of the Federal Government's intention to
invest heavily in airport safety.

Sir John will consider the role of closed-circuit television,
which he thinks is often poorly used at airports. But he will not
focus on technological solutions. "I know nothing about
technology," he said. "I can barely use a screwdriver."

Instead, he wants to ensure that if an attack occurs a proper
security plan is in place: that everyone knows what everyone else
is doing. While terrorism and crime are often global, police and
other services that fight them can be parochial or territorial.

Nevertheless, the co-operation between police, intelligence and
emergency services after the London bombings was "a model of
clarity" that Australia needs to emulate.

Sir John believes the tightening of airport security since
September 11, 2001, has led many terrorists to switch to other
forms of transport. Terrorists know that "if you want to hit a
country (and) damage its economy, then you attack its mobility -
its transport system".

Yet the size and complexity of airports mean they will never be
immune from threat, he says. Sydney Airport has 62,000 employees
(Melbourne has 40,000) and is not much smaller than Heathrow, which
has 70,000 workers and is said to be the largest airport in the
world.

Sir John says his task will be to propose better security
measures that nonetheless allow people to move around "with a
minimum of hindrance and a maximum of freedom".

"There are compromises here. We are seeing that with the London
Underground. People are flooding back into it. Life cannot come to
a halt."

Sir John plans to report to the Howard Government by September
5, three months to the day he got Mr Anderson's call. At 65, he has
never been to Australia. Discreet as he is, he discloses that he is
looking forward to a good glass of Australian red wine.